Hello Mike,

I read the email you received concerning “days, months, times and years”, and I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject. If I am wrong in my perspective, I would appreciate any correction. We are to try the spirits [1Jn 4:1], and when we do that we are proving them [1Th 5:21].

In John 2:21 it says that no lie is of the truth. Christmas and Easter are both based on lies. That in and of itself is enough to show what spirit they are of. John 4:23 says we are to worship God in spirit and in “truth”. One can’t worship God in truth if the worship is based on lies. To participate in Christmas and Easter would be to put a stumbling block, or an occasion to fall, in our brothers’ way [Rom 14:13].

Birthdays are different in that we are celebrating ourselves, and Matthew 23:12 says: ‘he who exalts himself shall be abased.’ Birthdays are also the pride of life [1Jn 2:16 ]. Once again, celebrating someone’s birthday with them would be putting a stumbling block before them. We would also be a partaker of their sins [1Ti 5:22]. I hope you and your family are doing well, Mike.

Sincerely,
P____

Hi P____,

I wish I could write so succinctly! Not one word you say is out of line with Christ’s example which we are to follow or with the scriptures He has inspired.

When we are finally given to desire what is commendable and expedient, as opposed to what is merely permissible, then we will not be attempting to avoid the “offense of the cross.”

Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Gal 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Gal 5:3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Gal 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Gal 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8 This persuasion [ cometh] not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Gal 5:10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
Gal 5:11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.

Look at this chapter of Galatians. It is the very next chapter after Paul explains that the weak and beggarly elements of this world are defined as the holidays of the world. The church of Paul’s time was the Jewish church with all of its holy days. Fitting in with all of those celebrations would have been a big help in preventing Christ and His apostles from suffering persecution. The Jews did not mind Christ healing on any other day of the week, but they didn’t want Him healing and telling healed people to ‘Take up thy bed and walk.’

Luk 13:14 And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

Christ could easily have healed the man without telling him to pick up his bed, but He wanted us to follow in His steps and not follow the weak and beggarly elements which have us all in bondage to Babylon and her principles, which you so succinctly describe.

The Jewish church with its holy days was the ‘Babylon’ of Christ’s day, and the Christian church with all of its holidays is the Babylon of our day. When we do not stand fast in our liberty from Babylon’s influences, we are soon entangled in the yoke of bondage that is all the lies of Babylon.

Romans 14 is instruction to the strong to “bear the infirmities of the weak” who “esteem one day above another.” It takes no spiritual strength at all to become entangled in that yoke of bondage. On the other hand, if we stand fast in our liberty from that yoke of bondage, we will suffer the persecutions which are “the offense of the cross.” Christmas, with all of its outright lies and pagan customs, Easter, with all of its blasphemous pagan fertility customs and lies, Halloween, with its demonic influences and pagan customs, and birthdays, which exalt us in our flesh with not one verse of scriptural support, are in total opposition to the example of Christ who does not give us His birthday to celebrate, and are one and all “not of Him who has called us.”

Gal 5:8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

It takes a strong person to endure the “persecutions and the offense of the cross” which comes with following Christ’s example, but it is the brother who is weak in the faith who is said to be judging his stronger brother.

Rom 14:1 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but do not argue with them about their personal opinions.
Rom 14:2 Some people’s faith allows them to eat anything, but the person who is weak in the faith eats only vegetables.
Rom 14:3 The person who will eat anything is not to despise the one who doesn’t; while the one who eats only vegetables is not to pass judgment on the one who will eat anything; for God has accepted that person.
Rom 14:4 Who are you to judge the servants of someone else? It is their own Master who will decide whether they succeed or fail. And they will succeed, because the Lord is able to make them succeed. (GNB)

A brother who cannot yet endure the meat of the Word of God, must be accepted as such, but a stronger brother is never instructed to quit trying the spirits or to quit exhorting his weaker brother to a more mature spiritual position by taking on the weakness of the weak brother and exchanging his meat for the weak brother’s herbs and milk. Rather, we are commanded to “bear with the sickness of the weak who are not yet able to endure the offenses of the example of Christ and His cross.”

It takes a strong person to endure the “persecutions and the offense of the cross” which comes with following Christ’s example, but it is the brother who is weak in the faith who is said to be judging his stronger brother.

Rom 15:1 We who are strong in the faith ought to help the weak to carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves.
Rom 15:2 Instead, we should all please other believers for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith.
Rom 15:3 For Christ did not please himself. Instead, as the scripture says, “The insults which are hurled at you have fallen on me.”

As you point out, if we keep and celebrate the birthdays of those around us, we are not “building them up in the faith”, rather we are “becoming a snare to them”, and we are avoiding “the offense of the cross.”

Circumcision, in Paul’s day, was the symbol for the whole law, and the Gentiles are a law to themselves with all their pagan laws and customs. If we are entangled in either, we can easily avoid the persecutions and offenses of the cross. If we “esteem every day alike” then we are not entangled with the yoke of bondage of “days, months, seasons, and years.”

Gal 4:10 You pay special attention to certain days, months, seasons, and years.
Gal 4:11 I am worried about you! Can it be that all my work for you has been for nothing?
Gal 4:12 I beg you, my friends, be like me. After all, I am like you. You have not done me any wrong.

“I beg you, my friends, be like me.” Paul certainly did not do the very thing he is condemning. He was more than willing to bear with the infirmities of these Galatians, but they had judged Paul to be their enemy because He refused to become part of the church world of His day:

Gal 4:16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

God bless you, and thank you for sharing your inspired words with me.

Your brother in bearing the offense of the cross and following the example of Christ,
Mike